The Gingerbread Knight
by Pagemistress89
Summary: A holiday present from me to you. An extra credit project at Hogwarts goes awry when Harry, Ron, and Hermione pick a strange book to use. Add a suit of armor, an old story, and Harry's penchant for trouble, and you get an entire castle disrupted.


The Gingerbread Knight

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any part of the canon Harry Potter world. JK Rowling owns it all.

* * *

"Come on Hermione, I don't want to do extra work!" Ron groaned, trailing reluctantly after the bushy-haired girl.

"Too bad, Ron! You need the extra credit, and besides, it will give us more House points!" Hermione told him, opening the door to the library. She glared at Ron until he walked through and followed him in.

Harry met them at a table, his face just beginning to lose the flush from flying in the cold for an hour. "Hey Ron, Hermione. What took you so long? We agreed to meet ten minutes ago."

"Sorry Harry, but Ron wasn't interested in coming, so I had to practically drag him. What have you got there?" Harry held up the slim book he had been reading.

"I was a little bored just sitting and waiting, so I found a book we might use. It looks like it might actually be fun."

"_Holiday Cheer: Spells and Potions to Add Magic to Your Holiday_," Ron read. "You might be right, Harry. That might have some fun spells. How many do we need for the extra credit?"

Hermione pulled out a copy of the assignment. "Two spells and a potion," she told them, skimming the scroll. "One charm, one transfiguration, and a potion, and they can't be from a textbook. They also have to have a unique aspect to them – something we haven't studied already in class. And we have to successfully perform the spells for McGonagall and give her a sample of the potion. If she thinks we did a good enough job, we get full marks on our last essay in each of the three classes and ten House points."

Ron brightened. "Snape's not grading the potion? And we get full marks on a Potions essay?"

"And he doesn't get a say in it," Harry added. "Only the Head of our House has to grade the spells and potion, and if she says we did a good job, Snape has to accept it!"

"Brilliant! Let's do this, then." Hermione rolled her eyes when she saw Harry and Ron trade grins. Oh well. Whatever worked to get them interested, she supposed.

Twenty minutes later, they had decided to stick with Harry's holiday book and were returning to the Common Room with it. Harry was already flipping through it to find some spells. He grinned broadly when he found an especially interesting one and stopped to show the others.

"Look at this one. A spell to transfigure any metal or wood figure into a gingerbread man, fully decorated. It says this is actually the source of the muggles' gingerbread man story." Hermione raised an eyebrow at that, fascinated at the trivia, but Ron was confused.

"What gingerbread man story?" As Hermione began to explain, Harry pulled out his wand. The spell actually looked pretty simple, but it would fit the requirements for the transfiguration spell. The wand movements, for one thing, were complicated, with a strange twist he had never seen before. He absentmindedly waved his wand as the book directed, trying to figure it out, while muttering the incantation under his breath.

"No!" came a shout. The trio's heads shot up. They had thought they were alone in the hallway. "I don't want to be eaten!" Ron tapped on Hermione's shoulder and pointed to the source of the outcry.

"Hermione? Is that the gingerbread man you're talking about?" She and Harry spun to face whatever he was pointing at, and gaped. One of the suits of armor was now a life-sized gingerbread man. The frosting that made his face was twisted in fear.

"But, I wasn't actually trying the spell!" Harry protested. "I didn't even aim at that!" The gingerbread man was still moaning about how he was too young and spectacular-looking to be eaten.

"I don't think it matters, Harry," Hermione said, trying to remain calm. "It's pretty obvious you transfigured the armor. Now let me see. To undo an animated transfiguration, you need to …" she trailed off as the ex-suit of armor's expression changed to one of determination, and he burst into rhyme.

"Run, run, with all of your might! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread knight!" He cried, before turning around and racing away from them.

The three Gryffindors gaped at the quickly disappearing "gingerbread knight," then slowly turned to each other.

"I think we need to find Professor McGonagall," Hermione said. "Maybe she'll know what to do." Harry nodded agreement, but Ron furrowed his eyebrows.

"What for? It's pretty obvious what we need to do. We need to catch that thing and turn it back!"

Harry shook his head. "I think the, er, the gingerbread knight is somehow following the storyline of the gingerbread man. And in the story, the gingerbread man runs away from everyone, and no one can catch him, until finally a fox tricks him into coming near its mouth, and the fox eats him."

"Can you imagine what would happen if something in the forest tries to eat the, well, the gingerbread knight and ends up trying to digest plate armor?"

"And I don't fancy chasing down a giant gingerbread cookie," Harry added. "Not in this weather."

Ron considered this and nodded. "Alright, then, let's go find Professor McGonagall."

* * *

"You transfigured and animated a suit of armor, and you gave it a personality to match a fairy tale?" Minerva McGonagall did her best to remain calm. She should have known that the month had been too peaceful. The Slytherins and Gryffindors hadn't had a serious fight, none of the Ravenclaws had tried to sneak into the Restricted Section, and the Hufflepuffs were being less gullible than normal (or at least no one had tricked them into anything major). It figured that Potter and his friends would be the ones to disrupt the peace.

"I didn't mean to!" Potter protested. "I wasn't even trying to cast anything!" His posture was entirely that of a guilty boy trying to attest to innocence.

"Regardless of that, Potter, you did. And you tell me that you watched the suit of armor ran onto the grounds?" Potter and Weasley nodded.

"Actually, Professor, it's calling itself the 'Gingerbread Knight' now." Granger pointed out.

"Regardless of what it's calling itself, Miss Granger, it is a suit of armor, and if it isn't going to revert to a suit of armor by itself, we will need to."

"What do you mean, it won't revert by itself?" Weasley asked. "Harry said he didn't put a lot of magic in it – he wasn't even trying to do any magic!"

"But it did leave its post, Ron." Granger pointed out. "I read in _Hogwarts, a History_ that none of the suits of armor can leave their post unless the Headmaster or the Deputy calls upon them to defend Hogwarts. So maybe Harry transfigured it so completely that it isn't a suit of armor anymore?" She turned to Minerva, unsure of her theory. Minerva didn't blame her. That type of transfiguration was typically incredibly complex. That Potter did it by accident …

"Let me see that book, Potter." He handed it to her, open to the page with the spell he used. She studied the instructions carefully and, finding nothing unusual in them, turned to the introduction of the book. She scanned it quickly. It was the typical introduction, explaining the basic wand movements, basic safety rules for potions. Strangely enough, it made no mention of the author, though most introductions included one. Then, finally, she saw a small note at the end. It claimed that the book was an exercise to simplify complexities, to make 'masters out of amateurs in no time at all!' She suppressed a sigh of exasperation. Trust Potter to find a book like this!

"You are correct, Miss Granger. The spell has been tweaked slightly. Without the modifications, this spell would be at least NEWT-level and would be in the Restricted Section. I would very much like to meet this author," she mused, looking again at the conspicuously missing biography. She looked at the cover, the title page, and everywhere else that normally had an author. Nothing. There were spaces for the author's name, but they were blank.

"Professor!" cried a voice. Minerva looked to the speaker, and realized that it was Parvati Patil, running towards them with a frantic look on her face. "Professor, someone made a giant gingerbread man and animated it, and it ran right over Lavender! And now it's running through the halls chanting some rhyme!"

Minerva sighed. Wonderful. Now the "Gingerbread Knight" was lost.

* * *

"Well, this is indeed a predicament," Albus Dumbledore admitted, eyes twinkling with amusement. McGonagall had, after twenty minutes of trying to hunt down the Gingerbread Knight, given up and marched Harry, Ron, and Hermione up to the Headmaster's office to tell their story again. Dumbledore had listened intently to them, examined the book with fascination, and then turned to McGonagall for her perspective of the story. Shortly before she finished, Flitwick had come in to report that a giant gingerbread man had run down four students on a flight of stairs, shouting some strange rhyme and declaring himself the "Gingerbread Knight." The four students were in the hospital wing and five other students had begun chasing the animated cookie down. Flitwick had then needed to be shown the book and filled in on what the three Gryffindors had done.

"A predicament is certainly one way to put it," Flitwick said ruefully. "Three of the injured students were muggleborns, and one of them is already writing her parents to tell them about fairy tales coming to life and attacking her. Ten first-years leaving class saw the incident on the stairs, and I needed to fetch a prefect to reassure them that the stairs were still safe. That "Gingerbread Knight" is quickly becoming a menace."

"I didn't mean to do it," Harry protested. "I wouldn't have checked that book out if I had known this would happen."

"The odd thing about this book," Dumbledore mused, "is that I am quite sure it is not what Madam Pince normally allows. And this," he opened the book to its title page, "looks like it once had a name on it." He pulled out his wand and tapped it. He lifted his eyebrows. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised." He showed them the revealed name. Flitwick bit his lip to hide a smile. McGonagall sighed in resignation; she should have known. Harry, Ron, and Hermione gaped.

_Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs encourage all future connoisseurs of mischief to enjoy the possibilities of the season!_

"I should have known," Ron muttered. "Trust the heroes of Fred and George to make trouble for us."

"That aside," McGonagall said, "the book does not tell us how to control the creation, and that is our main concern. Headmaster, that Gingerbread Knight is loose in the castle and is causing havoc! We need to find it, undo the transfiguration, and return the suit of armor to its post."

"Ah," said Dumbledore. "In point of fact, Minerva, the suit of armor will undoubtedly return to its post immediately, once the transfiguration has been reversed. And as for finding it," he held up the book again, "it would seem the authors have provided an answer." The page he had the book open to was a charm, designed to allow the caster to find anything within a mile of the caster, including unplottable items.

Flitwick took the book and examined the instructions for the charm. "Albus! Do you realize what this is? This spell should have been incredibly advanced, but they seem to have reduced the complexity without affecting the power or the range! Even seeing their result, I have no clue how they managed that. It shouldn't be possible to simplify charms like this one, but that's exactly what they've done. Amazing!"

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed, eyes twinkling. "It would appear that most of the spells and potions in this book are simplified versions of complex spells. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger should have no difficulty in using this locating spell."

"What?" Ron asked, startled. "Why us?"

"It was the three of you that started this little adventure, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore explained. "Therefore it is only right that the three of you should be the ones to put things back to right. Miss Granger, can I assume that you know the spell to undo transfigurations?" Hermione nodded hesitantly. Dumbledore clapped his hands. "Excellent. Then with that decided, I will leave the three of you to this." He handed the book, still open to the locator charm, back to Harry.

The three Gryffindors looked at each other ruefully. Harry shrugged, and led the way out of the office.

* * *

"Merlin! I can't believe we still haven't gotten rid of that stupid Gingerbread Knight," Ron complained, as the three rested after they had failed for the third time to stop the giant cookie.

Hermione nodded tiredly and added, "And I can't believe my spell didn't work! I could have sworn I did it right, but it's still transfigured." They had cornered the Gingerbread Knight for the third time and Hermione had carefully aimed the transfiguration-cancelling spell at it. But instead of reverting to a suit of armor as expected, it had just run away, shouting "Run, run with all of your might! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Knight!" again.

"Actually," Harry spoke up, "I think I just figured out why your spell didn't work, Hermione." Surprisingly enough, Harry was spending their break buried in the book. Now he laid it out for Ron and Hermione to see, and pointed to a footnote on the gingerbread transfiguration page. "Apparently, the book has some spells that can only be reversed by a potion. We're going to have to brew it and then get some of the potion on the Gingerbread Knight to turn it back."

"Are you kidding?" Ron moaned. "Now we have to make a potion, too, as well as run all over the castle looking for that cookie? Great."

"Look on the bright side," Hermione encouraged. "At least now we know what to do. And the potion doesn't look that difficult. Besides, maybe Professor McGonagall will let this potion count for the extra credit. We're also proving that we can cast a new charm, and Harry's already done the transfiguration. The day's not a total waste, then."

"And complaining isn't going to make it any easier," Harry pointed out. He stood up. "Come on, I think we've got all the supplies for the potion up in our dorm. We'll brew the potion, it'll be done in about thirty minutes, and then we can find the Knight and finish this, finally."

The three trooped up to Gryffindor tower. Upon their arrival, Ron and Harry ran up to their dorm, grabbed their potion kits and a cauldron, and met Hermione back in the Common Room. They were alone in the tower; almost everybody else was outside or home for the holidays.

"Yes," Hermione decided, reading the instructions for the potion, "this is a pretty quick and easy one. Only ten steps, and no tricky parts. Start chopping, Ron, and Harry, can you do the measuring? I'll do the actual brewing." They settled into their normal brewing roles, and were soon waiting for the completed potion to finish simmering. Once that was done, they poured a few ladlefuls into a flask. Hermione also filled a samples vial to show McGonagall. Harry quickly cleaned up the potions mess and returned everything to the dorm.

"Right, then," Ron said resolutely. He cast the locating charm, studied it, and led the way out of the Common Room. Harry and Hermione followed, eager to be finished with this mess.

* * *

After two hours, five knocked over students, a confrontation with Filch and Mrs. Norris, a close call with Snape and a delicate potion, and six repetitions of the Gingerbread Knight's chant, the three students had finally cornered the enchanted cookie at the base of the North Tower. Each of them had taken a turn at casting the locating spell; they had discovered after only twenty minutes that the charm only lasted until they spotted their target and needed to be renewed every time the knight got away.

Ron and Harry leapt forward to restrain the giant cookie. Hermione approached the Gingerbread Knight, a little unsure. They had tried quite a few spells on the thing, trying to slow it down, but nothing had worked. What if this didn't work either?

Shaking her head with annoyance, she thrust the unhelpful thoughts of her head and unstoppered the flask and walked up to the brightly colored annoyance. The Gingerbread Knight tried to dodge her, but Ron and Harry held it still and soon they were hanging onto a stationary suit of armor covered in fast-disappearing potion. They quickly let go, and the suit of armor began trotting away from them. The three followed it anxiously until they saw it reach its post and become perfectly still.

"You managed it, then?" McGonagall asked them crisply. They spun around to see her, Dumbledore, and Flitwick watching them.

"Er, yeah," Harry said awkwardly. He gestured at the suit of armor. "It came back here once Hermione threw a potion on it. Apparently it needed a potion instead of the cancellation spell."

"Good," McGonagall nodded. "In that case, Potter, I'll have that book. It shouldn't have been in the library in the first place, and I'm going to return it to one of the authors. That book is far too much trouble to be here." Harry handed the book over.

"Er, Professer?" Ron asked her before she could leave. "Do we still get to count that towards the extra credit?"

* * *

Author's Note: Hey, so what do you think? I enjoyed writing it, though I got kind of bored with it near the end, so it doesn't have as much havoc as I wanted it to have. But all the same, it's just a little Christmas present from me to you. I might add another chapter today or tomorrow, but I'm not sure. I'm kind of busy today (I'm supposed to be cleaning right now, not writing, but, eh, meh.), so it might not happen.

But anyway, please read and review!

Happy holidays!


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